Dear Rosemary,
My name is Chalice and I attended the Bendigo Writers Festival as part of the La Trobe Univeristy's Writers In Action group and as you are the director of the 2016 Bendigo Writer's Festival I thought you may like some feedback from a festival goer.
Firstly, apart from disappointing behaviour from audience member's at the first session I attended with Indira Naidoo, I thoroughly enjoyed the festival, but, I think there are a few things that could be improved for future years.
Firstly, why such a rush? Did you attend one of the sessions immediately after another? It was a mad house, people pushing, missing out on getting into venues, but mostly being late because the session before ran over time. I understand you want to make the festival as efficient and make sure you don't waste any time but giving 10 minutes between sessions in my opinion is too tight of a schedule, and a half an hour lunch/toilet break somewhere in the middle would have been appreciated by many I spoke to, anyway, something to think about yeah?
Mostly I am writing this letter in defense of the session held in The Engine Room. It is a quaint and intimate setting and please don't get me wrong I appreciated those qualities, what I didn't appreciate was the sessions I missed out on because the venue was packed tighter than a can of sardines, that there was excellent sessions being put in a space that I didn't feel gave them the space to reach all they could have due to size restrictions. I understand that planning a festival like this must be difficult, and there is much to consider, and that The Engine Room is a lovely venue, and maybe you have no control of the locations of the sessions, but Young Adult fiction writer's - which were the majority of author's crammed into The Engine Room deserve more space in the festival in my opinion, and the audience deserves the opportunity to see them if they want to.
Sincere regards, Chalice.
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